Pledges to save Cadbury factory hit $2.5m

Jaffas hurtle down Baldwin St, Dunedin during the Jaffa race. Photo / File

The bid to save Dunedin's Cadbury factory is continuing to gain momentum, after pledges worth more than $2.5 million poured in over the last day since it launched.

Jim O'Malley, a Dunedin city councillor, said he was ''really happy'' with the public response, a day after unveiling a plan to raise $20m to keep the Cadbury factory open on a portion of the site.

He hoped to raise between $5m and $10m through the pledge site, www.ownthefactory.co.nz which would provide a ''stepping stone to getting the rest of the money'', O'Malley said.

The plan involved a public share offer, preceded by a two-week pledge period designed to gauge interest by inviting the public to indicate their potential financial support.

The page received $1.6m worth of pledges in the first 24 hours and has since jumped to $2.5m.

Mondelez the owner of Cadbury and the factory said it had received several expressions of interest from parties wishing to take over production of kiwi treats including Jaffas and Pineapple Lumps, and was working through these.

"While we take the time to assess the responses we have received from interested parties including Mr O'Malley's community based initiative, it's not appropriate for us to comment on the specific detail of these responses," a Mondelez spokesperson said.

The pledges ranged in size from $50 to $50,000 and had come from New Zealand and as far away as Australia and the United States, he said.

Several ''wealthy individuals'', whom O'Malley would not name, had also indicated they were interested in discussing a future contribution, he said.

The pledges were non-binding, but those making them had been asked to do so only if they intended to invest in the future, he said.

The results so far were ''pretty exciting'', he said.

The pledge period runs for two weeks.